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Sunday, 21 February 2016

The Impact of The Curse on Dasharatha

Dasharatha, was
the king of Ayodhya. He was the son
of Aja and Indumati.

He had three
wives who were his queens:

Kausalya:-the
sweetest and eldest

Kaikeyi:-the most
beautiful and middle one

Sumitra:-the most
intelligent and the youngest.

He had four sons Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrugna. He
died, when he was separated from his sons. This was because of the impact of the
curse on Dasharatha, by a blind
couple. Because of the promise Dasharatha
made to his wife Kaikeyi, he had to
send Rama to Vanvas (to live in
forest) for 14 years. One night, after Rama left Ayodhya, the king Dasharatha
could not sleep as his heart was full of grief, because of the injustice he had
done to his beloved Rama. He died because of this grief, when all his sons were
away from him.

One day, Dasharatha went to
the banks of the River Saryu, to
hunt. He was an expert I hunting and was well versed in Shabdavedi (hunting by determining the direction of sound).
As he was standing near the Saryu, he
heard a noise which was made by an elephant drinking water with his trunk. He
shot an arrow in the direction of the sound. After a moment, he heard a human
voice in pain and someone said, ‘Who has done this? Who hunted me like an
animal?’ Dasharath went towards the
voice and saw a young boy lying along the banks of the river, with an arrow in
his chest. He had a pot of water lying beside him.

Dasharatha at once realized
his mistake and asked for his forgiveness. The boy told Dasharatha, that he is ‘Shravan
Kumar’ and was carrying water for his blind parents. They are totally
dependent on me. He started to speak with difficulty, because of the arrow in
his chest. The young boy, while dying told Dasharatha,
to take the pot full of water to his parents, who were waiting at the ashram for
him. The ashram was near to the River, so he immediately went there with the
pot of water.

The old couple was eagerly waiting for their son, to come
back to the ashram. Hearing Dasaratha’s
footsteps, they called him with endearing words. They thought that their son
has come, as he had gone a long time back to fetch water for them.

Dasharatha,
gathered some courage and told the blind couple about their son’s death. The
couple was shocked and cried a lot. After a long moment of silence, the father
of the boy cursed Dasharatha and said
‘As, I am suffering the pain of separation from my son, you will also die when
your son is separated from you.’ After saying this, the couple died.